Chaplains

It seems like a contradiction in terms: Atheists in the U.S. military want to participate in the armed services' chaplaincy program — a program designed to meet the religious needs of service members. But the request isn't as incongruous as it appears. A recent story in The Times described the effort of Army Capt. Ryan Jean, an intelligence officer at Ft. Meade in Maryland who describes himself as an atheist, to gain recognition as a lay leader assisting a chaplain in ministering to the troops.

January 14, 2011 | By David Zucchino and Michael Muskal, Los Angeles Times

? Nearly a week after the deadly shooting spree that claimed six lives, Tucson on Friday mourned a federal judge, the second funeral of a victim of the attack that has rocked the nation. Federal District Court Judge John M. Roll, a devout Roman Catholic who was killed after attending a morning Mass, was remembered at a service at the same church where a day earlier a funeral was held for the youngest victim, Christina-Taylor Green. Security was especially tight for the judge's service because many of his judicial colleagues and other dignitaries were attending.

Vincent Timphony was born right outside the gates of the Fair Grounds in New Orleans. Monday, 76 years later, he died within a stone's throw of Santa Anita. Timphony was a horse trainer and horse-race character. Ranking the order is impossible. In racing, he had his 15 minutes of fame. In life, he was a Fourth of July rocket who kept on going right through the fizzles. He had little when he was born and less when he died. Eddie Donnally rode thoroughbreds for 20 years, more than 10,000 races over 54 tracks.

When Christy Goetz's husband, Dale, told her at the outset of the war in Iraq that he wanted to join the Army to become a chaplain, she rebelled. "I told him: 'You're not going over there and getting killed,' " Christy Goetz recalled. "I mean, he's my honey. I love him. I don't want anything to happen to him. " Dale Goetz, a Baptist minister, signed up anyway in January 2004. Before long he was Chaplain Goetz, ministering to troops in Iraq later that year and the next. He volunteered for a second combat tour last summer, in Afghanistan.

October 18, 2009 | John Milburn, Milburn writes for the Associated Press.

As his fellow prisoners of war returned home from the Korean War, they shared stories of sacrifice by the Rev. Emil Kapaun, a humble Roman Catholic priest from Kansas. The prisoners of the 8th Cavalry Regiment spoke of how Kapaun, an Army chaplain, continued to look after his men even when he was wounded and sick. Risking his life, Kapaun would sneak out after dark to scrounge food, fashion makeshift containers to collect water and wash their soiled clothes. Kapaun died at the camp hospital seven months after the Chinese captured him in 1950.

American Muslims have never been much of a presence in the Los Angeles Police Department, accounting for less than 1% of its nearly 10,000 officers. But now, with department leaders eager to improve relationships with local Muslims, top brass have named the force's first Islamic chaplain: a Pakistani-born spiritual leader who has spent much of the last decade trying to build bridges between law enforcement and Los Angeles County's diverse Muslim communities.

It was 8 a.m., and the subject was death. A 55-year-old man was wasting away from lung cancer and cirrhosis. His weight was plummeting and his brain was swelling. But he was in denial, refusing to discuss hospice care or consider a "do not resuscitate" order. A bright pink vase filled with yellow mums sat near the window, belying the grim task facing the healthcare workers at Beth Israel Medical Center who had clustered around a conference table. "This has been really sad," said the Rev.

A U.N. tribunal convicted a former Rwandan military chaplain of attempted rape and genocide for crimes that included killing people who had sought refuge in a seminary and sentenced him to 25 years in prison. Emmanuel Rukundo, 50, was found to have played an integral role on at least four occasions in the abduction and killing of Tutsi refugees from the St. Leon Minor Seminary in Gitarama, the judges said.

The basic rule for Marine boot camp is simple: Keep your mouth shut and mind your own business. But it's different when the subject is suicide. Drill instructors encourage recruits to share their feelings in "guided discussions" and tell them to watch out for, and promptly report, warning signs in their buddies. The suicide rate in the active-duty Marine Corps was 16.5 per 100,000 in 2007 -- below both the active-duty Army and a similar demographic in the civilian population.